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Artist
Weishan Liu (劉維姍) is a guzheng master performer, composer and educator. She was born in China and began training in the classical style of the guzheng from the age of eleven when the acclaimed guzheng master Cao Zheng (1920-1998) picked her as his student at the Shenyang Music Conservatory. She later also studied under Yan Li and Zhao Yuzhai. Her breakthrough came at the 1974 Chinese national traditional music competition where, playing her original composition "The Magnificent Bronze Gorge", she won first prizes in both the composition and performance categories. She went on to become the top guzheng soloist at the Central Song and Dance Ensemble of China, making recordings and performing and touring with them, as well as often performing for visiting heads of state. Liu moved to the United States in 1982 and continued performing her unique style of guzheng music. She has performed with the Chinese Orchestras of Berkeley and Los Angeles, as well as with the Bay Area Women’s Philharmonic Orchestra, the Palo Alto Philharmonic Orchestra, and she has performed composer Chen Yi’s modern compositions with the ensemble Earplay. She was a pioneer in the teaching of guzheng overseas. Over the past two decades she has trained well over a thousand students, many of whom have become professional performers and teachers themselves. She also founded the "San Francisco Guzheng Music Society" to promote the music of the guzheng and traditional Chinese music and culture. This organization c